Democratic Vermont Rep. Becca Balint stormed out of the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday after Attorney General Pam Bondi called her out for not voting in favor of resolutions condemning antisemitism.
Balint and Bondi got into a heated argument while the congresswoman asked her whether President Donald Trump knew about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s interactions with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The congresswoman lashed out at Bondi after she mentioned the antisemitism resolution that she voted against in June 2025.
“You didn’t ask Merrick Garland anything about Epstein, not once … And also, I want And also, I want the record to reflect that, you know, with this anti-Semitic culture right now, she voted against a resolution condemning —” Bondi said.
“Oh, oh, do you want to go there, Attorney General? Do you want to go there? Are you serious? Talking about antisemitism to a woman who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust!” Balint shouted. “Really? Really?”
The congresswoman then stormed out of the room.
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The resolution, H. Res. 488, condemned an antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado, and expressed support for more federal immigration enforcement involvement to detain criminal illegal aliens. The attack was allegedly perpetrated by Mohamed Soliman, an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa and shouted phrases like, “Free Palestine” and “End Zionists.”
The congresswoman voted “present” on another resolution, H. Res. 894, which condemned and denounced all instances of antisemitism in the U.S., rejected all forms of terror, hate, discrimination and harassment of Jewish people and reiterated its support for the Jewish community. It was introduced by Republican Tennessee Rep. David Kustoff in November 2023 and passed the House on Dec. 5 of that year.
During the hearing, Bondi engaged in verbal blows with several Democratic congressmen and Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie over her handling of the Epstein files. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has gradually released the files since the passage of The Epstein Files Transparency Act in November, including more than 3 million files on Feb. 1 which showed that Lutnick and his family had lunch with Epstein in 2012, had a drink with Epstein at his home on May 1, 2011 and signed an agreement to enter business together on Dec. 28, 2012.
Lutnick previously told The New York Post that he vowed never to be in the same room as Epstein after he witnessed a massage table in Epstein’s home in New York City in the 2000’s. The secretary stated during a Tuesday hearing that he had very little involvement with Epstein and had only met him three times.
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